미국 디자인특허에서의 비자명성 분석에 관한 고찰

In order to invalidate a design patent, both the primary reference and the secondary reference should be presented. The design characteristics of the primary reference should have basically the same overall visual impression as the design patent. If a finder of fact does not find the primary reference, he should decide that the design patent is not obvious. To find the primary reference, a court must both (1) discern the correct visual impression created by the patented design as a whole, and (2) determine whether there is a single reference that creates basically the same visual impression. Once the primary reference is found, other secondary reference would be used to modify it to create a design that has the same overall visual appearance as the design patent. These secondary references must be ‘so related’ to the primary reference that the appearance of certain ornamental features in one would suggest the application of those features to the other. Regarding the ‘so related’ test, CAFC found that the striking similarity in appearance would have motivated a skilled designer to combine features from one with features of another, in MRC v. Hunter(2014) case.